The General's Gourmet Wife

Clara Stone writes about food for a living until she wakes up in a shut-up wing of an imperial palace, in the body of a maid nobody has any use for. Her plan is to keep her head down, get herself out of the palace, and open a restaurant. A revolt reaches the capital before she can. To stay alive she volunteers to cook for the army camped there, and when General Gavin Ward's stomach trouble stops responding to his physicians she treats it with food instead. It works, which is the problem. The prince commanding the army does not want Gavin any more popular than he already is, so he marries the palace maid to him and sends the pair of them north to a border town. The town is cold and short of everything. Clara cooks for the garrison out of what the supply carts bring, and the soldiers come round to her well before the officers do. She and Gavin get on, and then it turns into more than that. Northern tribes raid the town and are pushed back. Clara sets tables for the tribal leaders and talks terms with them over the meals, while Gavin works out where the missing grain and money have been going. There is an attempt on her life, and after that poison. The war turns against them, the two are separated, and Clara is held in the capital.